Alex eyed me while I rubbed at my blotchy eyes and blew all my boogies into his handkerchief.  "And that's why she looks so ugly?"  he asked Max. 

"We're talking about Binky, here, not my current looks!"  I snappily answered, still blowing on the hankie.

“Or lack of.”  Alex added with a snicker.

I shot him the evil look before tucking the used hankie down the open pimp-style hole of his unbuttoned school shirt.

Max sighed watching Alex jump around behind the counter, trying to fish the handkerchief out of his shirt, where it slipped inside.  

"Joo-Eun and I were wondering if you could get your cousin's girlfriend's father's second cousin, twice removed to help us out." he suggested, sitting on one of the stools at the front counter.  

I sniffed, wandering over to a game machine a few meters away from the counter.

Alex scratched his blond dyed head of hair.  "Naw, my cousin's girlfriend's father's second cousin is the one that works at that beauty parlour.  It's my brother's friend's cousin's girlfriend's mother's godson that works at the police station."  he corrected.

I fished into my pants for some coins and found a hole in my pocket.  

Great.  Just great.

Max scrunched his eyebrows together, leaning forward on the counter with his elbows.  "I could have sworn it was your cousin's girlfriend's father's second cousin who worked there." he insisted.  

"Or was it your other cousin's auntie's son's friend's girlfriend's third cousin?" he wondered instead, tapping his chin.

I walked over to Max and lifted his arm to fish in his pocket and made a face to only find folded articles of cars.

I threw the articles over my shoulder and walked around the counter and stuck my hand in Alex's back pocket but found myself stuck.  I tugged at my hand but to no avail.  

"Alex, ummm a little help?  My hand is uhhh,"  I started to point at my hand still stuck in his back pocket.

Alex distractedly waved me off as he continued his conversation with Max.  

"Dude, you got it all wrong.  My other cousin's auntie's son's friend's girlfriend's third cousin is unemployed." he insisted with a shake of his head as he wiped the countertop.

"You and your big butt."  I muttered grumpily to myself, finally managing to get my hand out of there when he changed his standing position.  

I immediately grinned to find a few coins in my hand and ran off back to the game machine.

Alex's manager popped out from the back room, carrying a huge cardboard box in his arms.  

"You don't even have a cousin's auntie's son's friend's girlfriend's third cousin.  It's your grandma's godson's friend's brother who's unemployed." He helpfully added to the conversation.

Alex's manager is one cool dude.  

His name's Joseph Geller, but everyone just calls him Joe.  He was originally from Boston, but decided to just up and move to Korea, of all places, and set up a video arcade.  

How cool is that?!  

So anyways, Joe is the most awesome, laid back guy you could ever meet.  He lets me stay at the arcade and bug Alex while he's working and even lets me play the games for free so long as I help lazy, clumsy Alex around the place.

What's even better, is he's only twenty four, and he looks like one of those Calvin Klein underwear models with the tall, dark, mysterious look.  He's always dressed in ripped up jeans and rock t-shirts.  

On any other guy, that would make them look kind of goth and honestly, loser-ish.  

On Joe, however, it screams Sex God!  No matter how beat, ripped and faded the clothes he wears, he still makes it look good and classy.  

Heck, with his height and build, he could even wear my grandma's bathing suit and still manage to look manly and sexy as hell.

One time during the summer, I caught him taking his shirt off because the air conditioning was broken and oh mama!  

I counted an eight pack!  I repeat, an eight pack!  

You should have seen the river of drool from my mouth.

Bahh, of course a hot mother fudger like him would be taken.  Not like I had any chance with the guy in the first place.  Compared to the stunning beauty and perfection of his girlfriend, I'm like poor Quasimodo, hunchback and all, just destined to love him, err ogle him, from afar.

I'm not bitter or jealous or anything.  She's just as cool and friendly as Joe.

His girlfriend owns the really popular trendy clothes store across the arcade.  

She's this amazingly tall and beautiful lady who's face definitely deserves to be in modelling and movies and junk. 

Her name even sounds like a celebrity's.  

Lee Mi-Hyun.  

So anyways, her parents wanted her to go into modelling and acting, especially since her family's rich and had all sorts of connections in the entertainment industry.  

What's really admirable about her is that she has major brains and opted to set up her own business instead.  

And what a success that was!  

She owns a whole chain of those stores across the city and people are always trying to sign her up to their own business and biting off her original designs.  

My sister's there almost every chance she could get, always waiting for new stock to come in so she could get at it first.

I waved at Joe, who shot me a friendly wink and a peace sign, making my heartbeat faster than a baboon's during mating season.  

On cue, I grinned like an idiot at him before I returned to my video game.